Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange during afternoon trading on January 17, 2024 in New York City.
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images News | Getty Images
U.S. stock futures were trading near a flat line on Thursday night.
Futures linked to the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 10 points, or 0.03%. S&P 500 futures fell 0.03% and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 0.01%.
In after-hours trading, iRobot has since plunged 40%. wall street journal The European Commission is likely to reject Amazon's bid to acquire the Roomba maker. The newspaper cited a person familiar with the matter.
Congress also passed legislation Thursday to avoid a partial government shutdown. This stopgap measure will maintain federal funding from March 1st to March 8th. The Senate voted 77-18 to pass the bill, and the House voted 314-108 to pass it. The bill now goes to President Joe Biden for his signature.
During regular trading Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 201.94 points, ending a three-day losing streak. The S&P 500 rose 0.88% and the Nasdaq Composite rose 1.35%. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq are now positive heading into 2024.
On a weekly basis, the Dow is down 0.33% while the Nasdaq is up 0.55%. The S&P500 fell slightly by 0.06%.
Thursday's rally was driven by big gains in the technology sector after Bank of America raised its rating on Apple stock to “buy.” Apple stock ended 3.3% higher, its best day since May 5, 2023. Tech stocks rallied even as the 10-year Treasury yield rose above 4.1%.
As earnings season continues, investors will be closely monitoring company financials to ensure market transparency.
“The 10-year bond yield has fallen to around 4%, and the market will go back and forth until we get better information in earnings season,” said Thomas Martin, senior portfolio manager at Globalt Investments. It will happen,” he said. “It could last for a good part of this year… then the election will be held, things will be resolved and people will be more positive heading into the fourth quarter.”
A number of financial institutions are scheduled to report their results before the bell on Friday, including Travelers, Regions Financial, Fifth Third, Ally Financial and State Street. Traders will be keeping an eye on December's existing home sales statistics, which will reflect the current state of the U.S. housing market. Preliminary consumer sentiment statistics are also scheduled to be released on Friday morning.
Correction: A previous version incorrectly stated that European regulators were likely to reject Amazon's iRobot acquisition offer.
